List Of Free Science Books

if you’re looking for some journal inspiration, i recommend following pepperandtwine on instagram! she posts beautiful journal spreads every day that are just so inspiring and creative❤️

Organization

How to Take Notes from a Textbook

How to Write Long Papers

Organization Tips

How to Choose the Perfect Planner

Bullet Journaling How-To

Keeping Your Cool

Focus and Energy Management for Students

Sending Emails to Teachers

Waking Up Early

Achieving your full academic potential: Things to Avoid Doing

Study Playlists

College

tips for college freshmen

How to study like a straight A student

College Tips

42 College Tips I Learned Freshman Year

College tips: Advice from a professor

10 Commandments of Dorm Shopping

AN EASY GUIDE TO BE HEALTHY IN COLLEGE

How to Write the Perfect College Essay

COLLEGE SHOPPING LIST

10 Tips for Getting Along With Your College Roommate

High School

33 Things High School Seniors Wish They Knew As Freshmen

Expert nutrition tips for high school athletes

16 Studying Hacks For Finals Week

School Tips

High School Advice

Survive high school with our how-to guide

Back to School: Tips For Surviving High School (Video)

JUNIOR YEAR ADVICE

13 Incredible Back-To-School Hacks You Won’t Believe You Survived Without

Senior Year Advice

hello everyone!! i am so thankful for your support and for making the studyblr community the amazing place that it is - i honestly still can’t believe that i have 10k+ followers in only 6 months from starting this blog in june, and i want to show my appreciation for all of you! 

rules to enter:

must be following me!

reblog once to enter

you can enter more than once if you want!!

you can like this post to bookmark, but it is not an entry

prizes:

there will be one winner chosen randomly!

5 lined a5 notebooks

gridded, hole-punched notebook (to put in folders/binders!)

black b5 gridded notebook

black b5 lined spiral notebook

2 month daily schedule/planner (pictured; not from muji but it’s really nice so i decided to throw it in!)

7 gel ink pens (0.38)

black ruler

mechanical pencil

yellow push button highlighter

black eraser

checklist notepad

other info:

i will be shipping internationally!

please be over 18 or have parental permission

and be comfortable with giving me your address!

winner must have an open ask box + respond within 48 hours of my message, or i will pick a new winner

let me know in the tags if reblogging from a sideblog!

no giveaway blogs please

please do not delete this text!!

+ my ask box if you have any other questions :^)

ends on: january 18th, 2016 (8am EST)

good luck and thank you so much everyone!!

xuanlin

hi there, can you make a post about making mindmaps please?

There are many types of mindmaps, and they are all different depending on what they’re focused on ~ generally, they have the same structure, but just be careful if you’re doing a science-based one while following a literature-based tutorial. 

Here’s a tutorial based on my most recent one {for English class, based on the novel Brooklyn}, hope it helps!

Keep reading

hey guys, this is a masterpost requested by loveathenaa about notes and studying basically!!!

notes

taking notes from a textbook

an alternative to flashcards

pretty notes!!!!

AMAZING mind maps!!

how 2 make banners

creating better flashcards

my fav online flashcard website [there’s also an app for ur phone]

note taking methods

illustrated study methods!!!!

some more

more note taking stuff bc i just can’t get enough B-)

printables!!!!

how 2 take lecture notes

annotating!!!

studying

get motivated!!!

relax whilst studying

study playlists by me!!!!

reasons to study

my fav focusing app

how 2 study

memorisation and things

101 study tips!!!

studying biology

when ur having a bad day

productive study breaks

self-study resources

khan academy + on youtube

physics

japanese

other languages <3

more and more languages yaaas

crash course videos!!!

math help

masterpost!!!

mythology!!!!

check out 3 minute philosophy

the school of life which is my fav ever!!!!

sparknotes which is another fave

gradesaver

bbc bitesize

hope this helps u guys out a bit also if u need anything or want to request a masterpost, please message me!!! -helena xx

{ 06.09.15 } » did someone say making posters?

my masterlist of 'how to life’ tips

Cleaning & Tidying

Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it’s worth it.

Reset to zero each morning. 

Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit. 

Get a reed diffuser and stick it on your windowsill. 

Have a ‘drop-zone’ box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.

Roll your clothes, don’t fold them - or fold them vertically.

Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it - once the timer is up, finish the task you’re on and leave it for the day. 

Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they’re still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing. 

Clean your footwear regularly and you’ll feel like a champ. 

Organisation & Productivity

Learn from Eisenhower’s Importance/Urgency matrix. 

Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.

Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that’s more your thing.)

Try bullet journalling.

Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular. 

Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It’s brutal, but it works. 

Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don’t overload your to-do list or you’ll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate. 

If you’re in a slump, however, don’t be afraid to put things like “shower” on your to do list - that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that’s okay. 

Have a physical inbox - a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.

Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.

Try timeboxing. 

Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously. 

Save interesting-looking shit to instapaper. Have a set time where you read through the stuff you saved to instapaper and save the shit that you like from instapaper to evernote (or bookmark it properly). 

During your working hours, put on your footwear, even if you’re sat on your bed. (Why?)

Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP’s details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on. 

Try using StayFocusd and RescueTime (or similar apps/extensions). (I promise, you’ll find that you’re not as busy as you think you are.)

Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you. 

Money

Have. A. God. Damn. Budget. 

Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)

Have a ‘money date’ each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not. 

Pack your own frickin’ lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag. 

Go to your bank and take out £100 in £1 coins (or w/e your currency is). That shit will come in useful for all kinds of things and you’ll never be short on change for the bus or the laundry. 

Food & Cooking

Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.

Simple, one-pot meals (“a grain, a green, and a bean”) are a godsend. 

Dried porcini mushrooms make a fantastic stock to cook with. 

Batch cook and freeze. Make your own ‘microwave meals’. 

Buy dried goods to save money - rice and beans are a pittance. (Remember to soak dried beans first, though!) 

Consider Meatless Mondays; it’s healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.) 

Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new. 

Don’t buy shit for a one-off recipe, especially if you won’t use it all. If you really want to try out a recipe, see if a friend would be interested in making it with you, then pool for the expenses. 

Make your own goddamned pasta sauce. Jamie Oliver has a decent recipe here, but the beauty of tomato sauce is that you can totally wing it and adapt the fuck out of it. 

Misc

Have a stock email-writing format. 

Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!. 

Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it. 

Know your OTC pain relief. 

Update your CV regularly. 

Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!) 

Some final words of advice:

Organisation is not a goal in itself, it is a tool. Don’t get caught up in the illusion of productivity and get distracted from the actual task at hand. 

Routines and habits will help you. Trust in them.

You have the potential to be an organised and productive person, just as much as anybody else. It just takes practice. 

More biology notes. Reviewing my old notes on Ecology, Evolution and Population Ecology for my Biology final exam.

How to make an awesome study guide / make notes on your computer

Writing by hand can be great in class or for jotting down notes from skimming through the text book. A great way to combine those notes are typing them up on your computer, and then print them out. Neat perfect notes with less paper wasted. Well printed out you can work with them even more to really get that information to stay. 

Go from 100 pages in the text book + a pile of handwritten notes to just a couple of pages of typed notes.

When typing them:

Layout. For each paragraph I make a headline in bold text. After that I use bullets and italicize terminology. I format the body text to be in two columns to save space and easier reading.

Keep it short. I  never write full sentences or grammatically correct. Write as short as possible while still getting the important information through. Making up abbreviations are an easy way to keep things short. It doesn’t have to look pretty, just make sure you understand it.

Simplify. Use arrows, dashes, colons, equal signs to indicate how different subjects and explanations are connected. Avoid “unnecessary“ words like "meaning…”, “such as”, “is the same as”. Use symbols instead. 

Tables. Making tables is an excellent idea for comparing things with different parameters. In your word processing program you can make your own pretty table designs or use pre-made ones. Sometimes simple ones are better though.

Paginate. Obvious but extremely useful!

Print on both sides of the paper. With half the amount of paper it kind of psychologically feel that you have less material to learn. 

Example:

What not to write:

Different species have different niches. You can define a niche as a species specialty, like its job.

Instead, try to remove unnecessary words that don’t contain much information.

Niche = a specie’s specialty, job.

When you have them on paper

All freshly printed and done? Great! Take your pens, pencils and highlighters and let’s go through the material. The first time I go through it I let it take a good while and I read it very carefully with my highlighters and pens handy.

Highlighting. If you’re into highlighting I have some tips for you. Don’t use one colour. Use several and assign each colour a different task or role. For me it really makes a big difference and I can see what’s what. Here’s an example of how I do it:

Pink: Headlines and headings Blue: Terms and words Green: Definitions and meaning of the term. (Green explains blue) Yellow: Examples and misc

Drawing. It’s helpful if you couldn’t draw said thing on the computer. What I like to do though is to make small doodles related to the terms, definitions, examples or the paragraphs in them selves in the margin. 

Notes. Take notes or mark off things you find extra hard or confusing.

When you’ve done all of that and your notes are a colourful clusterfuck I read them through again and again. You can also hold over the paragraph and try to either write down or explain verbally what the paragraph is about. Try not to completely memorize the paragraphs, instead really try to understand the concept.

I hope that was helpful for some of you :) I know exams are coming up and this can be a fun thing to try out. After I’ve made my study guide I almost exclusively study from it. I don’t use the textbook from that point on except for answering practice questions. 

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.

Good luck! ♥

firstly, some general tips from me:

don’t use spark notes/schmoop/other reference sites until AFTER you have read your book and formed your own opinions, because it makes your essays a lot more interesting, which your teacher will appreciate, if everyone is doing the same essay on something! (However, don’t do this if you don’t have time, rely on those sites when you are racing a deadline or juggling tons of stuff ofc)

do the in-class reading beforehand! this sounds so silly, but doing the reading beforehand can help so much if there is an in-class discussion on it after

highlighters (or other writing utensils in various colors) are your best friend when there is an in-class essay! while obviously in general they are great, if you have a few different colors you can quickly mark up the text to find recurring elements and structure essays around that!

look up the social-cultural-historical context of a book! this is super great for reading nonfiction, but also great for most fiction because it allows you to understand the lens the author was writing through and their motive for doing so, which gives you great fodder for discussion if you need to discuss purpose

other useful tips + guides:

mla official formatting

general essay help (basically recipe for a good essay)

SOAPSTone method

words that connote tone

standard themes in literature

i know this isn’t a comprehensive list, but i hope it helps with untangling the mess that is understanding some lit classes!

// I’m back with some tips on taking notes from readings! This is a sequel/prequel (whatever floats your boat) to how to take lecture notes. One big tip I have is that you shouldn’t really be using the same study methods for every single class in your undergraduate career. Different subjects/professors/assessments/levels require different methods. The more attuned to that you are, the more likely you’ll get that A